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A really caring government

While our Glorious Government are spending billions on fripperies like an underground railway in Dublin, cutbacks are hitting the most vulnerable in society – the disabled.

Now I happen to know a little bit about caring for the disabled, as our Laughingboy is not exactly able to care for himself, and it therefore falls to his mother. I know for a fact that this is not an easy job, as it requires 24 hour attendance, a shed load of medication and a lifetime of dedication. Frankly, she needs all the help she can get.

Our Glorious Government however have decided that carers don’t have many votes and are therefore bottom of the pile when it comes to handing out the few resources we have left. TD’s pay and allowances and the banks are much more important than the disabled so they are doing their damndest to cut back on funding.

The latest wonderful piece of logic comes from the HSE, who, in their infinite wisdom have decided that nappies are expensive and are therefore trying to cut back on them. Some bright spark has come up with the idea that if the person you are caring for needs extra nappies, you have to prove that they are needed. How do you do this? By bringing the used ones in to be weighed, of course.

Enda Egan of the Carers’ Association is not easily shocked, but he was appalled recently by the indignity inflicted on some of his members, in the name of saving the HSE a few euro.

Egan was horrified to learn that some carers who dared to ask for extra incontinence wear to make their loved ones more comfortable, were asked to bring in used “nappies” to be weighed.

A small number of so-called “incontinence managers” put carers through this trauma in a crude attempt to measure the amount of fluid passed, in order to calculate if they really did need more than the permitted quota of pads, he says.

I’m not quite sure how this works though. If the nappy is underweight, are you supposed to bring it back home and put it back on your child or aged parent until they have filled it a bit more? Is there a minimum quantity of piss or poo before a nappy qualifies for renewal?

Finally, our Lords and Masters have reached the lowest of the low. We are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

What am I going to do about it?

I’m going to collect all Laughingboy’s pads and force feed them to that Minister for Obesity of ours.

Mary – Welcome! I honestly don’t know. This shower of incompitents seem to be impervious to any sort of protest. They are determined to hang in there, and nothing is going to shift them short of armed rebellion.

Hmm. Normally in this situation you’d post in soiled nappies in protest.

But in this case, as they’ve asked for it already… ???

tt – our govt certainly isn’t giving free napppies to everyone, even though the usual two or three years is enough strain on the wallet (I buy biodegradable ones. If we had compost collection in this province I could put them in there. But we don’t). Paying for nappies for decades is a scary thought.

TT – HSE = Health Services Executive [Health? Hahahaha! They’d kill you quicker than look at you]. Carers of the disabled are provided with free nappies. As Jo says, a lifetime’s supply of them would break anyone.

I weirdly enough feel really grateful for what I and Laughingboy have. Yes respite services have been stripped, but four or five nights a month is better than none PLUS we carers get an annual grant for surplus care which nobody mentions in interviews. Yes I have to weigh the child’s excrement which is a bit weird, and he’s only allowed four nappies a day (hold it in, kid!) but at least that’s something. The price of incontinence pads is phenomenal… anything to do with disability is hiked to a very unfair degree where costs are concerned so I’ll quite happily weigh the kid’s left testicle daily if there’s a freebie in it.

Some cultures kill disabled babies for fear of their burden on society. Others lock disabled people away with the chickens. I thank the powers that be every day that Laughingboy exists in this day and age and in this country, for it could ALWAYS be a whole lot worse.

Sometimes it feels like all the complaints we’re bombarded with from every angle are going to give us cancerous growths somehow. More inspirational positivity would do far more than a protest outside the Dail.. we just don’t seem to have any positivity in us anymore. We can’t blame the government for that.

I’m still trying to decide between the two countries my kids belong to — but between service cuts and funding cuts and humiliating treatment like this, the more I don’t want to go back. This was news to me – not good news!

Where are the twenty-somethings and the thirty-somethings in this horror show of government incompetence and cold blooded arrogance? It’s the next couple of generations who will have suffer if their parents just fold their arms and moan on about how fucked the country has become. Get out on the streets, form a new political party , stop saying ‘ ah sure it’ll be all right on the night’ because it won’t be. Nothing will change, and why would it, if there’s no push for a political and social revolution. I grew up in Ireland and I was apparently misinformed when my father said that an Irish man would never again tolerate any kind of injustice . Sorry Dad , seems you were wrong.

And by the way the grandiose project scheme otherwise known as ‘Social Welfare for the Lads’ will be announcing all sorts of shite over the next 6 months as a cover for funnelling more money to the economic traitor club.

I see all sorts of ickle announcements of jobs all around the country at the moment … 170 jobs here, 100 jobs there and to be honest I believe none of it.

If I said what I would like to say about the FF/Eunuch parties here I’d be picked up by FF’s MI5 friends in no time.

Some prat in FF, not a long distance from Drumncondra is well in with the UK security services. Mark Getty of the billionaire Getty’s I notice is the latest one travelling declaring his nationality as ‘Irish’ and carrying an Irish passport… where did he get that and who got it for him?

The knackers in the ‘Republican Party’ no doubt. Sorry for going well off-topic but by jumpin’ babby jesus there’s a bill to be paid by some of these muppets yet.

I love Kate’s response but it is shameful that home carers who actually SAVE Governments money by looking after their family members don’t always get the level of support they need. I’m not sure about weighing incontinence pads but if it weren’t for family members here, we’d be back to Victorian institutions to look after our disabled and that simply is unacceptable.

I think K8s response was graceful. And that is rare thing these days when it comes to emotional subjects like people who are disabled or need extra care.
I still want to burn the fuckers out of Kildare Street.